Children's rights organizations Bris, Unicef and the Ombudsman for Children are all strongly critical of the Tidö parties' proposal.
This is a counterproductive and dangerous proposal, because on the contrary, this proposal risks lowering the age even further where children are groomed into crime, says Li Melander, who is a children's rights lawyer at Unicef Sweden.
Previously criticized
The government's investigator proposed in January that the age of criminal responsibility be lowered from 15 to 14 years for certain crimes. The proposal was already criticized at that time by several referral bodies. Li Melander is surprised that the Tidö parties are now proposing an age of criminal responsibility of 13 years.
This is really children, and it will be an incredible shift in the whole of Sweden regarding our view of children. At what age do we think children should enter a legal process that is adapted for adults?
Ombudsman for Children: Failure
Children's rights organizations instead want to see the government invest in early interventions to catch children who are at risk of getting into crime.
It is such a failure that the responsible authorities do not catch the children, but rather the criminal gangs that identify vulnerability factors, she says and adds:
Of course, we must take action, but it does something to our entire society if we think that the solution is that 13-year-olds should be placed in custody and sit in prison.
